Saturday, October 4, 2008

It's a happy dinner!Pork Kimchi Fried Rice

On Friday night, I got together with my library school friends Jun and Socrates to learn how to make Jun's Kimchi Fried Rice. The three of us love to go out to eat and one day we were at Gaja eating kimchi fried rice and Jun said she makes it at home all the time. Before she finished that sentence, Socrates and I invited ourselves over to her house for a lesson!

First, Jun and David have two adorable doggies. Lunchie is a completely cute ball of fluffiness, and Sunny is a brand new addition to the family. Sunny was found on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles! She just got fixed, and Lunchie and Sunny are constant companions now!

At our last dinner together, Martha Stewart was brought up and Jun said the CBS made-for-TV "Martha Inc." is classic (in a made-for-TV way). After dinner, we watched the show with Cybill Shepard. My favorite line was when a woman in KMart says, "I tried your recipe twice and it didn't work out." The Martha character says, "Well, you just can't cook!"

Kimchi Fried Rice

Jun cooked 3 cups of Japanese rice...you can also use day old rice. Jun browned some shabu-shabu cut pork with some garlic. Since shabu-shabu uses super thin cut meet, this was a perfect cut. If you don't have a Japanese grocery store nearby, you can cut pork very, very thin. After browning, the pork is set aside while you prepare the rice.

The rice is added to the pan and cooked a bit in oil to get some edges crispy and, if it is fresh rice, to dry it out a bit. Jun usually uses butter, but she was out and we used oil instead.

Jun's secret ingredient is a Japanese rice "enhancer" that has lots of salt, probably some MSG, dehydrated soy sauce and other flavors. If you don't have a Japanese market in your neighborhood, you can add salt, soy sauce and some peppers to your rice.

The pork is added back to the rice along with the drained kimchi. Top each bowl with a fried egg.

Super Yummy Dinner!

I helped Jun make the veggie side dish. Onion and garlic are cooked for 3 minutes, then 4 diced seeded tomatoes with 1/2 cup of dry white wine are added and cooked for 8-10 minutes. Blanched green beans are tossed in along with olives (or capers) until heated through (about 3 minutes).